Sheff Proposals Could Help And Hurt City Schools

If the state legislature approved all of the school desegregation recommendations recently proposed by an independent panel, the changes could remake city schools.

Or, perhaps, eliminate some of them.

The recommendations from the Educational Improvement Panel could go a long way toward making Hartford schools better, such as expanding preschool classes, remedial help for the thousands of struggling students who can't read, and expanding adult education programs.

But the proposals also could take away thousands of students, leaving Hartford without millions of dollars in state education assistance.

Thousands of students would likely be voluntarily bused to suburban schools under an expanded Project Concern program. More could leave if they attended out-of-town magnet and interdistrict schools.

Education leaders say this undoubtedly would mean schools would have to close and programs would have to be eliminated or curtailed, because of the corresponding loss in state education money.

Further, another recommendation from the panel would place Hartford on immediate probation, something that could result in a reorganization of the school district.

Tonight, members of the Hartford Board of Education, state legislative leaders and others will hold an open meeting to discuss the implications of the recommendations and how likely any of them are to become law.

The Educational Improvement Panel was appointed by the governor after the state Supreme Court ruled last summer that Hartford schools are unconstitutionally segregated. The legislature was ordered to find a remedy for the racial isolation and inferior schools in the city.

``We are trying to learn what impact any of the proposed remedies might have on Hartford. We also might have an opportunity to see what kind of chance any of these proposals have of passing,'' said Donald Romanik, president of the Hartford school board.

``It is going to have a major impact on how we deliver services to kids. My greatest concern is how choice is going to work and how many kids are going to leave and whether or not kids are going to come in. We want it to be a two way street. We don't want to decimate our system,'' he said.

Another board leader, Ruth Hall, said she opposes any plans to bus more students out of Hartford.

``We would have less money and we would still have a poor education system,'' said Hall, the board vice president.

Tonight's meeting begins at 7 in the auditorium of Bulkeley High School. The co- chairmen of the state legislature's education committee, Rep. Cameron C. Staples, D-New Haven, and Sen. Thomas P. Gaffey, D-Meriden, and John Brittain, a lawyer for the Sheff plaintiffs, also are scheduled to attend.

``I will be discussing what Hartford should be doing,'' Brittain said. ``Hartford needs to be proactive. Hartford needs to be planning.''